Hunting with "The Pack"

Another day, another try.  As always once the tailgate opens, Kaiser raises his nose and air scents.

Lou is a hunting buddy of mine.  We first met at a NAVHDA meet and became fast friends as he had a drahthaar and a Land Rover and I the same.  Discovering we have similar taste in dogs, guns, trucks, and just about all thing Teutonic, it was easy to develop a friendship.  Over the years I got him into Merkels, Meindl boots and Darnes.  I've learned a lot about upland hunting from Lou as he hunts probably at least 80 days of the upland season (that will change now that he has a kid on the way).  We have shared a lot of our "secret" locations to on another, vowing never to reveal them to anyone else.  I have kept my part of the bargain, I believe Lou has as well.

It was 9am when Lou called us at the motel, letting us know that he'd be at the spot at 10.  So we waited and done some sight seeing.  The fall colors have finally come and even though sparse with trees the area was quite a sight.

We arrive just as Lou was making his way to the location.   Lou's pack was minus one dog.  Summer is in heat and was left home but the four others made the trip.  I rarely get to hunt with Lou anymore, the reason is his drahthaar Arnold is not dog-friendly.  We have had some issues with Arnie attacking Kaiser.  This never happens in the field but when we are making camp.  Its easier to just not hunt together.  Lou's other dogs, on the other hand, are some of the sweetest dogs ever and a true pleasure to be around.  Arnie was purchased semi-finished years ago from a trainer.  That trainer did a poor job of socializing him which is a shame and really does the purchaser a disservice by selling such a dog.  Thankfully Lou's other dogs were properly socialized since their birth and are friendly and playful.

The Pack minus one dog.

I started ahead of Lou so that we wouldn't have any issues with Arnie.  Eventually Lou was to my right a few hundred yards away.  Not long in our hunt a cottontail flushed and I fired with the IC then the mod barrel, missed. It eventually flushed again but I missed with the only shot I had.  As we moved on,  my dad was having a hard time keeping up so I told him to hunt this field as we were headed toward the mountain and planned to climb it to get to the other side.  We finally reached the mountain, as I looked at it from the base I told Lou I don't think I have it in me to climb.  So he climbed and I skirted around the base to reach the other side.  I was hugging alongside private property fence when a covey of 30 birds flush.  I took two shots missing because I flock shot it like an idiot.  They landed in the private property so I did not give chase.

The Pack backing one another.

The back side is named by me as Shangri-La.  Its been about two years since I've been back here.  Its not hunted much by anyone as its difficult to get to and private property surrounds much of it.  There are mountain quail, valley quail and chuckar here.  Lou and I flushed huge coveys back here.  Today though we couldn't find a single one.  What a shame.  This just proves how difficult this year is going to be.  Lou managed to flush a cottontail but could not connect with his Darne R10.  After sometime in Shangri-La we headed back.  One of the pack pointed and the rest of the dogs backed.  It was quite a scene unfortunately it was just a tweety bird.  A few rabbits and jacks flushed but of course I missed all the cottontails and managed another jack.

It was almost three and Lou was don for the day ready to head back to civilization.  I didn't want to deal with Friday LA traffic and decided to wait it out and stay to hunt another area.  We said our goodbyes and I headed to another area.   The new area was colder and there was slight snow.  It was not cold enough for the frost to last.  Once the flakes hit something it basically melted.  Tried I hunted for about an hour or so before giving up and calling it a trip.

Darne R10

A few years ago I told Lou about Darne shotguns.  In time he managed to pick one up for quite a steal from a dealer in Texas.   The gun he found was a 20 gauge Darne R10, a 70s era Stoeger import.  Its a Plain-Jane model with no engravings and a case colored sliding breech.  The LOP was too short and Lou added a slip-on ventilated pad, (to my disgust), to increase it to 14.5 inches.  The wood is appropriate for such a model and therefore nothing to write home about. Fit at some places is not something you'd expect from a fine gun maker.  I had once read that the quality control during the 60-70 era was not up to par. Even with all its shortcomings, this gun is a dream, I would not be ashamed of having it in my collection (without the slip-on pad of course). I shot his R10 while dog training and it shoots nicely though like all short, lightweight guns its very easy to stop your swing.  So you must consciously tell yourself to continue on your swing.

I love that Darne action.

No engravings but is nicely case colored.

The wood is very plain and has a blond hint to it.

This needs to be removed and a proper pad must be added to increase the LOP.

Stoeger Markings.

The wood to metal fit here could be better.  I'm not sure if the wood shrank or if the rumors of 1970 era Darne's poor quality control are true.

This is a true Darne and as such is marked so on the ears.

This is a fine gun and I wish it were in my collection.  It balances quite nicely and has a feel more like a 28 guage than a 20. The chokes are very open. I believe they are Skt1/Skt1 but I'm not too certain.  Perfect over a pointing dog and our resident quail.

Getting ready for the Season, Prado Dog Training

With one day away, September 1st marks the dove opener for most of the States.  Most hunters are foaming at the mouth by now.  Not me.  I'll bypass the opener like I have done so for a few years now.  It's simply too hot and there are too many knuckleheads that ruin your day.  On top of that, who knows what yesterday's dessert rains had done to those birds.  They are probably all gone.  I do look forward to September 8th, though as it marks the opening of the early mountain quail season for the northern half of the state.  In anticipation to that I joined Lou for his weekly dog training at Prado.

Lou's Darne R10 (take off that damn slip on pad!)

Lou had excess birds and as this was his last time out for training until the season opens he gave me call to see if Kaiser needed some bird work.  He invited me last week as well but unfortunately I was too busy t come out.  With two of his females in heat, Lou brought his three other dogs.  We had 20 birds for four dogs, so each dog was going to get a good workout.  I brought my Merkel 147SL in 12 gauge and Lou brought his Darne R10 in 20.  After telling Lou about Darnes and having bought his first, he is now a convert.  His Darne is lovely but unfortunately its LOP is much to short.  Lou added a slip on pad, which I hate and can not stand, to help increase the LOP to 14.5 inches.  I told him to get rid of that slip on and put on a proper rubber pad but its his gun.

My Merkel 147SL

It looks like my time at the clay range was a big help as no birds escaped my 12 gauge.  If only that will be the case in the field this year.  I even tried the R10 for the last bird.  His Darne seems so much whippier than mine.  As with any lightweight and short gun it is very whippy and as such you tend to stop your swing.  I missed the first shot and just barely made the second after realizing I was stopping my swing.  Kaiser needs work.  He bumped the first bird tripping the launcher right after he pointed.  After a correction he stopped that nonsense.  Since I've done little bird work in the past off seasons, he is no longer is he steady at wing and shot which is a shame.  Lou's dogs did well as they should have as they've been training all damn summer.  For whatever reason all the birds seemed to launch my way.   Also my damn launcher failed to trip the latch, I'm hoping its just the batteries.  If not I'll be pissed.

I videoed the training with my Contour Roam and if I have the time and patience to upload it on youtube I'll post it here.  They came out quite nicely.

On Order From France

For the longest time I have wanted this book Les fusils de chasse de Regis Darne by Jean-Claude Mournetas.  I have known about it for over 6 years now.  Unfortunately it has never, at least not to my knowledge, been stocked on this side of the pond.  There are many reasons for this,of course, one Darnes are not too popular or even common Stateside, and two, this book is only available in French.  Although I haven't a clue how to read French; I wanted this book solely for the photos.  I'm weird like that and notorious for buying books in languages I can't read.

Years ago I found this Darne book and wanted so badly to buy it but only bookstores in France sold it.  None of the websites had were bilingual.  Recently I began my search for this book again and noticed that a seller on Abe Books was selling it in Quebec.  I got all excited and order it.  A day later I received an email from Abe stating that the seller no longer had it in stock.  Bummed, I started surfing for it again.  I found a site that actually was bilingual, well sort of.  It was half way translated to English.  When I was placing my order, most of it was in French though.  Most of the ordering process was pretty self explanatory and straightforward but for all I know I could have order some gay porn without even knowing it.  We'll see when I finally receive it.

While looking for the Darne book I found Le Laguiole Eloge du Coutea by Daniel Crozes.  I actually was able to order this book from Amazon so it was much easier to order.  I didn't need to pull out the translator.   The seller though was still in France. I recieved an email the other day stating that is was shipped and expected to make it to my door by the 3rd of May.  So I'll be waiting patiently for it to arrive.
From these pages I pulled from the website it looks like a good one.

Both should make some nice coffee table books even though I wouldn't have a single clue as to what the heck the text is talking about. Maybe I should start learning French among other languages.

How To Disassemble A Darne Shotgun

To field strip a Darne, first place the gun on safe and open the action.

Underneath the sliding action there is a tang, push it upwards and the ears will pop forward a bit. Don't slide the action too far back you won't be able to reach this tang as the comb of the stock will get in the way. On subgauges its even more difficult as there is less real estate to get your finger under the action.

Slide the action all the way rearward. Once all the way rearward, you may need to push the ears forward a little, pulling the action upwards a bit.

Then you can remove the entire action from the rails by sliding it off.

Inside the receiver there is the barrel release. It works like a seesaw. Push the side closest the barrels downward.

Now the barrels can be removed. Depending on your Darne, you may or may not be able to do this without much force. Some shotguns are easy and you can remove them with simply your hands and just pull them off while others require tremendous amount of force to jar the barrels free. If the latter is the case then you hold the shotgun stock with one hand and the other on the barrels. Then you can tap the end of the barrels (not too hard) on the carpet to free it. The first time you do this its quite awkward as forcing your barrels down onto the floor is very counter intuitive and rather scary.

Once you've done that, you have now the gun field stripped for cleaning or inspection.

To reassemble reverse the order.

Place the bites in their slots. Then pull the barrels forward.

Once the barrels are put back, push the rear side of the barrel release downward.

Line the sliding action with the rails.

Pull the ears all the way back slide the action forward. You may get some resistance. If you do you'll need to wiggle the ears slightly forward and back until the action slides onto the rails and locks.

Old Darne Posters and Catalog Covers

Off Season Reads

I picked up a few off season reads before I left for Utah. Unforetunately this book arrived while I was in Utah and I could not use the information contained within. From what I have been reading the areas I was hunting was not far from what Ben suggests. Too bad I never did run into any Huns. Perhaps next year. I'll be more prepared next time.

Lou told me about this book and I browsed through his and thought it a very well made book. It contains all the info one may need while hunting any of the quail species throughout the US. Although I have just browsed through it, it has good info excellent pictures and printed on quality thick gloss paper.


I found out about this book from a Griffin & Howe marketing email. The authors were signing at the G&H booth at the SCI convention. I've browsed through this book as well and never realized that Hemingway owned a Darne 28 gauge. He bought it for his second wife Pauline while in France for waterfowl hunting in Tanzania and sage grouse in Wyoming. Although no pictures exist of his gun, we know that the gun existed. No one knows what became of this gun.

Hemingway also owned a pair of Merkel Over and Unders from Abercomie and Fitch (its really too bad what has happened to that company). These were second hand guns. His model of choice was the 303 in 12 guage each with a set of 28 and 32 in barrels and adjustable combs and buttpads.

Being American, Hemingway obviously owned several American made guns such as the Winchester Model 12 among others. Looks like I have a few things in common with Papa.

Darnes on YouTube

How Darnes function:


This hunter is using a Darne V22 16 gauge:

Last Two Days of the Season

Jan. 27 Joel's Spring/ Moo Canyon/ CBF

We hit Joel's in the morning. The first thing I noticed was that the area is completely renovated. New fences and signs can be found everywhere. The road was fine, I thought that it might be a little hairy with ruts but it was almost perfect. Once we parked Kaiser became very birdy, and a convey of at least 30 flushed wild. We ran after them and managed to shot at singles and doubles here and there. These birds as like last year are very intelligent. Quick shots are required as the birds will dart and fly in between some sort of cover. We spent the whole morning here chasing these singles and doubles. We missed everyone. At lunch we headed back into town.

After eating we headed toward Moo Canyon. I've have sucess here in the past and thought at least we could get on some birds. I was wrong, not even one. I did notice alot of sign but we couldn't find anyone of them.

CBF was pretty much the same.











Jan.28 Moore's Place

Moore's Place has always been one of my go to spots. It has never disappointed. This day would be no different. We started down the riverbed. After about 20 minutes a covey of 20 or so flushed wild. Although I only saw 2, hitting one f them. Dad saw the other birds scatter. He also manged one with my Merkel Model 8. I managed to hit mine with my Darne R13 I hit him with a B&P Spreader No.7. I missed the double as I shot behind the second bird. We tried looking for the scattered covey but we were unable to locate them. Eventually we made it down the wash and to the water trough. I climbed up the mountain from there. I managed to go about 1/3 of the way and headed toward the car at that elevation. I made down and up the next draw. I was in the cheatgrass and a pair of chukar exploded past exposing them for an ass shot. I shot and missed the first. I thought I hit one with my second but the bird kept flying. The bird was at least 40 yards when I made the second shot. I was sure I hit it but it kept flying. I eyeballed it and noticed that one leg was dangling. After about a 1/4 of a mile the chuckar began to do cartwheels in the air annd feel from the sky like a sack of potatoes. It flew at least 20 storeys. I watched it fall and land fortuitously on the only bare area in the thickets. I followed the same elelvation,hoping to run into the other bird, until I was directly above the fallen bird. I proceeded down and had Kaiser make the retreive. His first taste of chukar. This is not the first time on chukar but his first retreive of one. After the retreive we went back up the mountain. No birds were found so we headed down. While at the creek I missed a male quail holding tight in the bushes. We made it back to car where we met Dad and I showed him the bird.

After lunch we took a short break. We hunted again around 2pm. It was still hot. I went up another mountain, this time without any luck. It was only until around 4pm when we located the birds. Kaiser managed 4 points and I only was able to connect on of them. These birds held so tight I had to stand on the bush that kaiser pointed. It mad for poor footwork and was a determining factor for the misses.

I regret not taking advantage of this wet year. I know the birds must have been abundant hopefully next year will be the same. As Arizona's season does not end until Feb.6 I am contemplating whether or not to make a field trip eastward. Afterall I've never taken a Mearns, scalie or even a Gambels (even though I have shoot at a few).